Highlands School China Connection: Resources Available and Questions Answered

Monday, April 2, 2007

Resources Available and Questions Answered

As word has gotten out about Highlands' involvement in the China Connection, folks have been wonderful to ask questions, express congratulations, and offer resources. A website that came to my attention today is entitled Life in New China. It has something for everyone -- information for students to learn more about a school in Beijing and information for educators who would like more teaching resources about Asia.

"Is this a permanent teaching position for Highlands, or is this a one-year position?"

Highlands School will hire a teacher for one year. Hanban helps us in several ways including by providing acculturation training and by partially funding the teacher for one year. Highlands School will provide housing, transportation, and a stipend. If the teacher and Highlands School both wish to continue the teaching relationship, the teacher may stay up to two additional years.

The students are excited about finding out who their new Chinese teacher will be. Some of them who know some Mandarin have been coaching me. One student who knows Cantonese has been trying to teach me to say, "I would like some lemon tea" because she says she got very hot and thirsty when she was in Hong Kong, and she wants to help me out!

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Ten Reasons to Learn Chinese

Ten Reasons To Learn Chinese By Frank Middleton 1. Chinese, is one of the Sino-Tibetan languages, or more accurately it is a group of different dialects of which Mandarin (Putonghua) is one. Taken together there are more native speakers of Chinese than any other language. To put this in perspective there are approximately 915 million speakers of Mandarin (without including any of the other dialects such as Cantonese), compared to Spanish, the fourth most widely spoken language in the world with around 400 million speakers. 2. You don’t have to learn Chinese characters to learn to speak Chinese. Pinyin is a method of writing Chinese in the roman alphabet. Hanyu pinyin spells the sound, and includes tone marks to help give the correct pronunciation. 3. Chinese literature. The dialects are not mutually intelligible but the written language is shared between them all. Although you do not need to learn to read Chinese characters to speak the language, by doing so you open the door to an enormously diverse and rich literature. In fact, the earliest record of writing was in Chinese characters although very different in form from modern characters (of which there are many thousand). 3. The Chinese economy is the fastest growing economy in the world, and so in the work environment even speaking a little Chinese will give you a competitive edge, if your company invests in China or is considering doing so. 4. Language and culture are linked and learning something of the Chinese language will help give an appreciation of the cultural heritage of China. 5. China is accessible to the foreign visitor in a way that it has not been in the past and travel to and within China is becoming easier, but to make the most of this opportunity for travel, language at a basic level is important. Mandarin is spoken throughout China. 7. China is becoming increasingly important in the world and may be the dominant economic power in the not so distant future. 8. Food. You can eat in the tourist restaurants in hotels but if you want to see more of China it is more better to try the food and experience the culture in local restaurants. 9. In 2008 the Olympics are being held in Beijing. In 2008 many foreign visitors will descend on China to watch the Olympics. It is an ideal opportunity, if you are lucky enough to be going, to stand out from the crowd by being one of the few who has learnt at least a few words of Mandarin. 10. Like any other language, it is possible to learn a few words and phrases in Mandarin, enough to be polite without spending years in further education. ------------- Frank Middleton is a freelance author and writes occasional articles for http://www.linguata.com/ a site with a practical realistic and fast approach to learning words and phrases in a foreign language, using a combination of sophisticated testing and simple games.

Highlands School China Connection

Monday, April 2, 2007

Resources Available and Questions Answered

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Ten Reasons to Learn Chinese